My reasoning for my position change on Lemon

[Pancho]

amen

[confucius say]

This is true in a vacuum, but you've got to remember this season had the tighter strike zones and ALL offenses saw a benefit to it, and pitching staffs saw the ERA go up. You've got to look at the relative stats, how we finished in the SEC.

SEC only stats:

2023: 9th in BA, 3rd in SLG, 10th in OBP, 10th in runs scored.

2021: 7th in BA, 8th in SLG, 6th in OBP, T5th in runs scored.

The '21 team was good at scoring runs because that '21 team had DUDES on it, and they nutted up when they needed to. The secret State sauce left with TA and Rowdy and Lemonis never learned the recipe

That's a Fair point. But if we're going to use relative stats, you have to look across all games because all the zones were tighter and all the balls were juiced, not just during in sec games.

2023: 114 in BA; 45 in SLG; 54 in OBP; 71 in runs per game

2021: 89 in BA; 81 in SLG; 84 in OBP; 37 in runs per game

Outside of runs, 2023 has the better relative line by a good bit. The anomaly is the runs scored, a stat you would expect to track obp and slugging, otherwise knows as OPS. Maybe the 2021 team was just more clutch or did little things better to move runners.

[The Federalist Engineer]

That's a Fair point. But if we're going to use relative stats, you have to look across all games because all the zones were tighter and all the balls were juiced, not just during in sec games.

2023: 114 in BA; 45 in SLG; 54 in OBP; 71 in runs per game

2021: 89 in BA; 81 in SLG; 84 in OBP; 37 in runs per game

Outside of runs, 2023 has the better relative line by a good bit. The anomaly is the runs scored, a stat you would expect to track obp and slugging, otherwise knows as OPS. Maybe the 2021 team was just more clutch or did little things better to move runners.

Conference Only Stats:

2021 and 2023 hitting were 269 and 270 with runners on. MSU 2023 hit 252 versus Lefties (10 pegs lower than the SEC average) but 246 in 2021 (also 10 pegs lower than the SEC average).

With base loaded 297 in 2021 but only 174 in 2023. MSU was last in bases-loaded batting in 2023.

Basically losing the SEC POY and having a horrible pitching year is the difference. But SEC teams improved 10 points overall, MSU did not improve.

Notably, SEC LHH batted 323 on MSU and SEC opponents hit 303 with runners on.

Message Pitching is horrible in 2023 and Hitting is sustainably slightly below average. Fox used to carry the Goat. The Fox went sour, the Goat could not pickup any performance

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

That's a Fair point. But if we're going to use relative stats, you have to look across all games because all the zones were tighter and all the balls were juiced, not just during in sec games.

2023: 114 in BA; 45 in SLG; 54 in OBP; 71 in runs per game

2021: 89 in BA; 81 in SLG; 84 in OBP; 37 in runs per game

Outside of runs, 2023 has the better relative line by a good bit. The anomaly is the runs scored, a stat you would expect to track obp and slugging, otherwise knows as OPS. Maybe the 2021 team was just more clutch or did little things better to move runners.

I understand that OPS is the best predictor of runs. But RUNS are what matters at the end of the day.

Every other stat is only useful for forward looking projection of who will score more runs the rest of the season. For hindsight, for seasons in the books, all those stats are meaningless because RUNS are what matter

Ultimately, we've been mediocre at hitting for years despite having above average SEC classes... Jake G just isn't an elite hitting coach. He's competent but not much else